Kaija's Diary

Not too long ago, I cleaned through the doggy toy box and got rid of half a dozen tennis balls... Sesi really did't have much interest in balls. Then this morning, Kaija was sticking her nose under the couch and straining. I said to her what I always said to Sesi, "Should I get the stick?" Sesi would get so excited and jump all around when I said that; but, of course being a newcomer, Kaija stared at me blankly. I walked over to the closet, took out an old stick formerly used for hanging up clothes. Then I walked to the couch and pushing the stick under the couch flushed out all the toys. Out came a ratty old tennis ball.
Kaija was ecstatic, she grabbed the ball and took it to her bed where she began to chew it. I walked over to take it from her mouth and she gave a low groany growl. We'd already done this with treats and last night with the Easter roast. Then her growl was real and robust. I could tell from the tone of this growl that she knew she was defeated and she knew a growl wasn't going over with mom... I grabbed the ball firmly and said, "Give" and gently took it from her mouth. It took a while before she willingly gave the ball back; but we played ball for more than thirty minutes and Kaija was loving it.
Then, suddenly Kaija chased the ball under the dining room table, she stopped short and began to shake her head and show her teeth. Then, without bringing the ball, she walked back to her bed and lay down continuing to shake her head. I walked over and opened her mouth and saw that she had bitten her tongue. It wasn't bleeding too badly so I went over the refrigerator and got a nice bowl of ice chips. Kaija was thrilled with them and I spent a half hour feeding Kaija ice chips one at a time. With fond memories of the special love and trust Sesi had for me, I thought, "another lesson in Mommy fixes everything..." Perhaps we are on the road to that relationship with Kaija?
Not wanting to spoil the idea of playing ball, I resumed the game briefly when Kaija was feeling better. Then she took her "indestructible" stuffed blue whale and tore into it until I had to scoop up the stuffing from the tail and toss it out. Evidently, she had consoled herself that, despite the owie, her mouth was still in good working order!